Performance Max for Gulf Advertisers: Setup, Controls and Measurement

Performance Max is the Google Ads campaign type that reaches Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps from a single campaign, using your conversion goals and creative assets to decide where ads run. This guide explains how Performance Max works, how Gulf advertisers should set it up in Arabic and English, which controls now exist, and how to judge whether it is really adding sales or leads.

We checked each product statement against Google Ads Help on 16 October 2026 and link the pages beside the claims. Google changes Performance Max often, so confirm menu paths and limits in your own account before relying on them.

What is Performance Max?

Performance Max is a goal-based campaign that gives access to Google’s full advertising inventory from one campaign. Google’s About Performance Max article lists YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail and Maps as channels, and recommends it for advertisers with specific conversion goals, such as online sales or leads, who do not want to restrict where ads appear.

How Performance Max decides where to show ads

You define the conversion actions that matter and can set a target return on ad spend or cost per acquisition. Smart Bidding then bids based on the likelihood of conversion. You supply creative assets and audience signals; Google’s systems combine assets into ads and look for people likely to convert across channels.

Performance Max and Search campaigns

Many Gulf accounts run Performance Max campaigns alongside Search campaigns. Google states that when a query matches an exact match keyword in a Search campaign, the Search campaign is prioritised over Performance Max, and that search themes have the same priority as phrase and broad match keywords. Keep exact match keywords for your most important terms if you want direct control over them.

Budgets and learning periods

Automated campaigns need time and data before results settle. Avoid changing budgets, targets and assets every few days in the first weeks, because each change can restart learning. Set a budget the campaign can sustain for at least a month, agree in advance which results will be judged and when, and resist judging a new campaign during a holiday week when demand is unusual.

When Performance Max suits Gulf advertisers

Performance Max campaigns work best with reliable conversion tracking, enough conversion volume to learn from and strong creative. In our experience reviewing Gulf accounts, it suits e-commerce stores with product feeds, lead generation businesses with clear lead quality data, and multi-location businesses that want store visits or calls.

Conversion tracking comes first

Because Performance Max optimises toward the conversions you give it, poor tracking leads to poor results. Make sure purchases or qualified leads are tracked accurately, with values where possible, and that consent is handled correctly. Our guides to server-side tagging and first-party data and GA4 attribution models in the GCC cover the measurement foundations.

Lead quality for service businesses

Clinics, property developers, schools and car dealers in the Gulf often generate leads through forms, calls and WhatsApp. If every form fill counts as an equal conversion, automated bidding learns to find the cheapest form fills, which are rarely the best customers. Feed lead quality back into Google Ads where you can: mark which leads became appointments or sales, assign values by stage, and optimise toward the stages that matter.

Start with whatever your CRM can export reliably, even a weekly upload of qualified leads. A simple, consistent signal is more useful than a complex one that breaks every month.

Asset groups in Arabic and English

Asset groups are collections of images, text, logos and videos, which Google describes as centred on a specific theme or audience. Google’s systems combine them into ads for each channel. For Gulf advertisers, language is the first decision.

Separate asset groups by language

Mixing Arabic and English headlines in one asset group can produce ads that combine languages awkwardly. We recommend separate asset groups, or separate campaigns, for Arabic and English, each with native copy, images with text in the right language, and landing pages in the same language. Our guide to bilingual Google Ads campaigns in Saudi Arabia explains the wider account structure.

What strong asset groups include

• Headlines and descriptions written natively for each language, not translated line by line.
• Images in several aspect ratios, with any text in the ad’s language.
• At least one video; without one, Google may generate video assets from your images.
• Final URLs that match the asset group’s theme and language.
• Seasonal variants prepared in advance for Ramadan, Eid, National Days and White Friday.

Video for Arabic audiences

Video placements on YouTube are a large part of the inventory these campaigns can reach, and Gulf audiences watch heavily on mobile. Short vertical and square videos with Arabic voice-over or subtitles, a clear product shot in the first seconds and a simple call to action usually work better than a repurposed television advert. Produce Arabic and English versions separately so each feels native.

Final URLs and landing pages

Google’s asset reporting lets you see assets created through text customisation and final URL expansion, and remove them if needed. If final URL expansion is on, the system may send traffic to pages other than the one you chose. Check which pages receive traffic, exclude pages that should not be landing pages, such as careers or policy pages, and make sure Arabic ads lead to Arabic pages.

Landing page speed and clarity also decide results. A slow mobile page, a form that does not work in Arabic or a price that differs from the ad will waste clicks however well the campaign is configured.

Audience signals

Audience signals tell Performance Max who your best customers are, such as customer lists, website visitors or interests. Google describes them as a way to speed up learning; they guide the campaign rather than limit it. Use first-party lists where consent allows, and separate signals for Arabic and English audiences where behaviour differs.

The controls Performance Max now offers

Early versions of Performance Max offered little control. Google’s article on visibility and control in Performance Max describes a set of newer features.

• Search terms reporting for all Performance Max campaigns and through the API.
• Campaign-level negative keywords for Search and Shopping inventory, including shared negative keyword lists.
• Search themes, with the limit per asset group raised from 25 to 50.
• Device targeting and age controls, now fully available, with gender controls in beta.
• Asset reporting with conversions, cost and clicks for each asset.
• A channel performance report, announced in beta, showing where results come from.

Placement and content suitability

Because ads can appear across YouTube, Display and other surfaces, review where they show and whether those placements suit your brand. Google provides content suitability settings at account level that apply across campaigns. For brands in sensitive categories, or those with strict cultural guidelines in the Gulf, set these controls before launch rather than after an unsuitable placement appears.

Brand exclusions

Brand exclusions stop a campaign from showing on branded searches you want to avoid. Google’s brand exclusions article says that for Performance Max they apply to Search, Shopping and YouTube search inventory, with an option to keep Shopping ads on searches that mention excluded brands. Google’s guidance on negative keywords recommends brand exclusions over negative keywords for brand terms, because they also cover misspellings, variants and subsidiary brands.

Search themes

Search themes tell Performance Max which searches matter to your business, especially new topics it might not find from your website and assets alone. Add Arabic and English themes that reflect how customers search, including Gulf dialect terms where they are common. Treat them as guidance, not a keyword list.

Negative keywords: use sparingly

Google’s help describes negative keywords in Performance Max as a highly restrictive control that can harm performance by stopping the system from finding valuable traffic, and suggests using them for essential brand safety or completely irrelevant terms. In practice, we review the search terms report monthly and add negatives only for clearly irrelevant or unsuitable queries.

Protecting your brand traffic

A common worry is that Performance Max takes credit for branded searches that would have converted anyway. That makes results look better than they are, and it can cost more than a Search brand campaign.

A practical approach

1. Run a dedicated Search campaign for your brand terms with exact match keywords, which Google prioritises over Performance Max for matching queries.
2. Apply brand exclusions for your own brand in Performance Max if you want new-customer growth measured cleanly.
3. Decide whether Shopping ads may still show on brand searches, which Google allows as an option.
4. Compare results before and after, including total brand clicks across all campaigns.

Marketplaces add a twist in the Gulf: your products may also appear in ads run by Amazon or noon sellers. Our research on marketplace SEO on Amazon and noon covers how to plan your own site and marketplaces together.

Competitor brands

Brand lists can also include competitors or partners. Excluding a competitor’s brand may reduce wasted spend if those searchers rarely switch, but it can also cut off valuable comparison shoppers. Test the effect on new customer acquisition before applying competitor exclusions widely, and review the decision after each peak season.

Performance Max for e-commerce: the feed matters

For online stores, the product data behind Shopping ads is often the biggest lever. Clear titles, accurate prices, correct availability and good images in your product data improve how products appear, whichever campaign serves them.

Feed checklist for Gulf stores

• Product titles that lead with the product type and key attribute, in the language of the target market.
• Prices and currencies that match the landing page exactly, in AED, SAR or the relevant currency.
• Availability updated frequently, especially during sale peaks.
• Images with a clean background and no promotional text overlays.
• Landing pages in the same language as the ad, with consistent structured data.

Our guide to product page SEO for Arabic stores covers the product pages your feed points to, and our White Friday and Ramadan e-commerce guide covers the peak calendar.

Measuring Performance Max honestly

Platform-reported results can overstate the value of any campaign type. Measure Performance Max against your own business data and with tests where budgets allow.

• Business outcomes: revenue, margin and new customers in your own systems, not only in Google Ads.
• Brand share: the share of conversions coming from brand searches, using search terms and brand exclusion tests.
• Channel mix: where results come from, using the channel performance report where available.
• Asset performance: which headlines, images and videos drive conversions, by language.
• Incrementality: geographic or time-based tests that pause Performance Max in one market and compare.

Reading the search terms report in Arabic

Search terms in Gulf accounts arrive in Arabic script, English, Arabizi and mixed forms, often with spelling variations. Group terms with the same meaning before judging them, and separate brand, competitor, product and informational queries. Look for patterns rather than single odd queries: if many irrelevant Arabic queries share one word, that word may need attention in your search themes, assets or landing pages, not only in a negative list.

A worked example, labelled as hypothetical

A Riyadh electronics retailer runs Performance Max in Arabic and English with one asset group each. Reported return looks strong, but search terms show many brand queries. The team adds a brand exclusion for its own name while keeping Shopping ads on brand searches, and strengthens its exact match brand Search campaign. Over eight weeks, total brand clicks hold steady across campaigns, while Performance Max reports fewer but newer customers. The team now judges Performance Max on new customer revenue rather than total reported return.

In-house team or agency

Whoever manages the account, insist on access to search terms, asset reports, channel reports and conversion settings, and on a monthly review against business results. Automated campaign types make it easy to report flattering platform numbers, so agree on business measures, such as new customers or qualified leads, as the main indicators from the start.

Differences across GCC markets

Account structure should reflect how each market searches and buys. The notes below come from our experience with Gulf accounts and are not platform statistics, so check them against your own data.

Saudi Arabia

A large, Arabic-first market where native Arabic assets matter most. Many advertisers benefit from separate campaigns for Saudi Arabia rather than combining it with smaller markets, because budgets, currency, delivery promises and creative differ. Our Saudi Arabia market page gathers research on the market.

United Arab Emirates

A mixed-language market where English and Arabic campaigns may both perform, with different audiences behind them. Track results by language, because a strong English campaign can hide a weak Arabic one when they are reported together.

Smaller GCC markets

In Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman, conversion volumes are often too low for automated campaigns to learn quickly. Consider grouping markets with the same language, currency approach and offer, or starting with Search campaigns until there is enough data.

Ramadan, Eid and peak seasons

Gulf demand shifts sharply during Ramadan, Eid, National Days and White Friday. Automated bidding responds to these changes, but it helps to prepare.

• Add seasonal assets and promotions before the peak, so the system has time to test them.
• Use seasonality adjustments in Google Ads for short, predictable spikes such as a one-day sale, where appropriate.
• Expect shifts in browsing times during Ramadan and avoid reacting to a single day’s data.
• Check stock and delivery promises daily during peaks, so ads do not drive traffic to unavailable products.

Our Ramadan search trends content calendar shows how to plan creative and budgets ahead of the month.

Where to start with Performance Max

Begin with tracking: confirm purchases or qualified leads are measured accurately, with values and correct consent. Then build separate Arabic and English asset groups with native copy, add search themes and audience signals, set brand exclusions deliberately, and keep an exact match brand Search campaign.

Review search terms, assets and channel results monthly, and compare Performance Max with your business data each quarter. For changes in how ads appear alongside AI search, see our briefing on Google AI Mode in the Gulf, and for more paid search research see our PPC research and the articles under the Google Ads topic.